Wave Accounting vs Zoho Books Comparison

When you are running a business, what is the most important aspect aside from being successful? Saving as much money as possible. This is the reason why online accounting solutions were invented. Furthermore, many accounting software are getting cheaper by the year: for a symbolic monthly fee you are able to get fully functional software that is capable of anything you want. Wave Accounting, which doesn’t cost a dime, and Zoho Books are such products; no matter which one you choose in the end, you will get a companion who will quickly and effectively do the job for you.

Wave Accounting

Zoho Books

Wave Accounting

Zoho Books

Headquarters

Canada

California

Founded

2009

1996

Languages

EN

EN

Wave Accounting

Canada-based Wave Accounting is an online accounting solution launched in 2009. The company mostly focuses on those sole proprietors and smaller businesses that want to save as much money as possible. Therefore Wave Accounting is simple and straightforward accounting software that only has a selection of the most essential features. Such features are (recurring) multi-currency invoices, estimates and bills, automated reports and very basic inventory management. With Wave you can also process your receipts by uploading them from either your computer or from your mobile device. If you want to get paid faster and you are willing to pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, you have the option to add the online payment option.

DashboardInvoicingEstimatesReceipts

Dashboard of Wave Accounts

Creating an Invoice in Wave Accounting

Estimating in Wave Accounting

Receipts by Wave Application

The company developed several applications for iOS and Android devices. However, if you have the latter, you can only use the stellar Receipts by Wave app created for the faster processing of your expenses. Wave Accounting has a great advantage over its competitors, however: the software is completely free of charge. Unfortunately the $0.00 price tag comes with some disadvantages too: Wave Accounting is full of ads of its sponsors, and despite offering and supporting an API, it only integrates with three different third party services. Furthermore, the customer support, which is quite decent with its FAQ, forums, tutorials and social media, is not complete; you have to pay $9 per month for chat and $19 per month to include both the chat and the phone support.

Zoho Books

Zoho is mostly known for its CRM, but since 2011 it also has an accounting solution, called Zoho Books with many essential features a successful business needs. If you are choosing the top pricing plan, you can add as many users and clients as you want and you can create sales orders and purchase orders as well that could be easily and quickly turned into bills. Furthermore, you can also use Zoho’s inventory, and create recurring transactions too. However, all pricing plans come with superb multi-currency and multi-lingual invoicing which includes invoice tracking and auto-reminders, real-time management of your expenses, automated banking with transaction recognition and project management with a time tracking option. Your client can access a neat client portal where he/she can easily see the ongoing projects, accept estimates and even pay online if the fast payment option is integrated into the software.

OverviewInvoicesTime TrackingInventory

Overview of Zoho Books

Invoicing in the Zoho Books App

Time Tracking in Zoho Books

Inventory in Zoho Books

You can integrate 22 different applications and software into Zoho, including the company’s own ones, but as an API is offered and supported, this number will increase in the future. Zoho’s services are available on all mobile platforms from iOS, to Android and Windows Phone too. After the expiration of the 14-day trial, you can choose from three pricing plans: Basic for $9 per month ($90 per year), Standard for $19 per month ($190 per year) and Professional for $29 per month ($290 per year). Zoho also has a complete customer service including phone, chat, email support, webinars, forums and many more.

Conclusion

With great software comes great pricing. This is the moral of comparing Wave Accounting and Zoho Books, two slightly different yet quite similar accounting solutions. Wave is definitely a good choice for sole proprietors and smaller businesses with its $0.00 pricing. Despite including some features for an additional fee, such as phone and chat support, and the online payment option, this software is pretty decent. You get multi-currency invoicing, billing and estimating, a basic inventory, mobile applications, and much more. Zoho Books comes in three different versions, but all of them contain superb features, such as the invoicing, projecting with a time tracker, real-time expense management, a user-friendly client portal, integration of many third party services, mobile apps, and complete customer support. And if you subscribe for the more advanced plans you also get sales and purchase orders, bills, unlimited users and clients and even a neat inventory.